So I talked to my Fox-watching, Trump-loving sister yesterday.

[Bluepinky]

We try not to talk about politics, because we end up fighting. But yesterday I said something that triggered a “discussion”.

She asked me if I’m part of the “Me Too” movement; I didn’t know why she asked that. She said the “Me Too” movement is anti-male, with the goal of bashing and hating men and boys. She has a teenage son and doesn’t want anything to do with a liberal movement whose goal is to hurt and hate males. I explained that “Me Too” is about fighting against sexual harassment, not hating men and boys.

This is how Fox News and right wing talk radio distorts things. They have turned the “Me Too” issue into a male bashing movement. It breaks my heart that my sister has been brainwashed into believing the crap she hears on Fox.

[Trueblue Texan]

1. Although that's the tone Fox News offers on Me Too...

I'm sure the females that work there have different opinion. Too bad your sis was never employed at Fox.

[olegramps]

28. Here is my response to FOX and their brainwashed listeners.

When they begin their repletion of FOX talking points, this is how I have chosen to respond: I am not here to educate you or futilely attempt to refute the notions that you have chosen to believe. That is your task in life since you have been gracious endowed with this capability. If you wish to believe in the most absurd be my guest. I only ask that you extend the same consideration to me.

[Duppers]

36. That's good.

I should memorize it.

However, thing is, I tend to immediately lose my temper, just as my Fox-loving idiot brother does, so we never bring up any triggers with each other. Somehow I doubt we'll interact much at all after my mother dies and her estate is settled.

Otherwise, he's a very sweet man...and we have a common enemy: my liberal but extremely narcissistic, lying, take-credit-for-everything sister. Strange that a liberal would be like that but she has some big issues.

And here in red country, I simply steer clear of repubs and have virtually no friends. Looking forward to moving.

[Squinch]

2. Throughout history, any movement geared toward reducing sexual violence

has been ridiculed and dismissed by the right. Our mistake is that we take that characterization seriously and try to fight against it.

I have those relatives too. My plan on this one is to say, "That's incorrect and ignorant and you need to educate yourself about what it actually is." It's basically my plan on every crazy-ass thing they say they believe.

That's the other thing: they say they believe this. I don't believe they really do. They say they do because they don't want to go through the work of changing their thinking and acknowledging the truth.

[Bluepinky]

4. I did try to educate her about what "Me Too" is about.

I don’t know if I got through. It seems like she and I have different viewpoints on everything. We aren’t as close as we were before Trump got in.

[greymattermom]

20. So just ask her

if she's in favor of having to sleep with her boss to keep her job.

[RandomAccess]

38. +1

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

3. Wow, the fact that you had to explain that to your sis just amazes me.

[Bluepinky]

5. I know, it amazes me too. And she's not a stupid person.

[sharedvalues]

6. Say instead "Fox lies. To get votes for billionaires"

It’s much more useful to talk about Fox and propaganda rather than to engage on issues like #MeToo. If nothing else it’s more efficient - give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man that Fox is lying about fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

“Fox lies to deflect anger away from the Walmart CEOs who are screwing the American worker”

“Do you know what Rupert Murdoch did in the UK before he started Fox?”

“GOP billionaires think you are a sucker. A useful idiot. They lie to you on Fox so you will vote to cut your own healthcare and vote to give billionaires huge tax cuts”.

The usual response is that democrats do it too and there is money on both sides - that’s what fox has told them. Then you say

“No. Only one party is the party of billionaires. Obama and Democrats worked to increase healthcare and make sure CEOs had higher taxes to pay their fair shar. After Republicans came into office, the two things they did were try to cut healthcare for you and me and put a $3 trillion tax cut for billionaires on a credit card, that you and I and our kids will have to pay for. That’s how you know only the republicans are the party of billionaires.”


Try this - it works! Forget about talking about me too for now - talk about lies and propaganda at Fox. As they wake up to the lies they will come along on MeToo as well.

[Bluepinky]

8. I have approached it from the "Fox is propaganda" angle, but not the wealth inequality angle.

Next time we have a discussion about Fox and/or politics (which almost always becomes a heated argument), I can try some of your suggestions.
But I have to say I think my sister is too far gone, though I hope I’m wrong.

On the other hand, she thinks I’m an angry liberal with a closed mind.

[EffieBlack]

15. This is my approach, too

Instead of arguing with them - a futile effort given how completely devoid of any logic they are - I just shake my head and tell them they're being played for fools by people who have never given a shit about them or done shit for them. And I'll feel really sorry for them when they finally figure that out because that's gonna leave a mark.

They have trouble with the issues, but they DON'T want anyone to think they're stupid, so this usually makes them at least think about it.

[Pepsidog]

22. My approach as well. Logic, facts and figures are useless. History will be a harsh judge.

We have all experienced it, a friend or family member who cannot be reasoned with even in the face of incontrovertible evidence. I just say history will be a harsh judge of this period of time. But that is assuming some sort of public reconciliation occurs. After Trump this country needs some sort of catharsis, if that is even possible.

[sharedvalues]

40. Yes. "Sucker" is a word that works- because it's true

Yup, I think you put your finger right on it.

GOP base voters are suckers who swallowed the lies of GOP billionaires.

That word “sucker” has particularly strong purchase on propagandized GOP voters. Shaking your head and saying you feel sorry for them infuriates them. The truth hurts.

[IluvPitties]

7. #MeToo empowers men as well

It is teaching us to establish healthier relationships with women, and that's always good.

[MaryMagdaline]

9. I've been sort of crafting a few replies to these remarks

Are you sorry they got Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby?

Waiting for a RWer to name a person victimized by lies. They will never say Al Franken who is the only close call.

[Ilsa]

10. Yeah, they said that about the Feminist movement, too.

Stay on her, show the men in your lives love and appreciation, and then maybe she'll get it a little.

[PaulX2]

11. Murdoch News Thinks Forcing Women To Have Sex To Keep

Their jobs is acceptable. It's just fine on Fox Planet.

[ehrnst]

12. You know what is about hating men and boys?

The conservative claims that if we allow trans women to use ladies' rooms, that men and boys are going to "put on dresses and assault women and girls in restrooms and changing rooms."

Those who support "bathroom bills" are the ones who think that our men and boys are just waiting for any opportunity to assault women and girls.

THAT is hating men and boys.

The #metoo movement is about women and girls speaking out about the men and boys who actually do cross the line and harass and assault.

[Upthevibe]

13. Did you mention that Gretchen Carlson, Roger Ailes, and

Bill O'Reilly?

[GulfCoast66]

14. Male bashing? I am a male. Pretty masculine by some common definitions. I support Me Too!

I have a mother, a wife, a sister and many strong female coworkers.

I am also a liberal. I will oppose any oppression of the powerless by the powerful.

Anyone who opposes Me Too is for oppression. How can they not see that?

[Moostache]

16. My sister married a Trumpster and became a Stepford wife in the offing...

She is dead to me now. Unless and until she divorces and regains her own mind, I have no sister.

[eShirl]

17. Was the word "Feminazis" uttered?

[Cosmocat]

18. This is what they do with EVERYTHING

The primary personal trait for any "conservative" is a sense of victimhood.

SO, the profiteers who turn a buck and make a living cast everything as an attack on them.

Attacking america, attacking christianity, attacking "good americans," etc.

[Duppers]

37. BINGO!!

The primary personal trait for any "conservative" is a sense of victimhood.

Thank you. Perfectly articulated.

[garybeck]

19. Yes. Fox News is the problem.

when that ugly beast is finally put in its place, and only then, will our country begin to heal.

[IronLionZion]

21. #MeToo also helps men and boys who were harassed and assaulted

by women or by other men or whoever. It includes big muscular manly men like Terry Crews.

Sis sounds like an Uncle Tom for women

[Nitram]

23. Yes, Blue, tht is exactly how Fox distorts the news every day. My parents would come up with the

most bizarre interpretations of events, and I'd find out that they got them from Fox News. Just like how they labeled the Black Lives Matter movement "anti-cop." And Republicans believed it. So much easier and less painful than accepting that many cops are racist and the system is strongly biased against victims of the abuse of power by cops.

[disndat]

26. It's a big problem for Democrats

Fox News is everywhere in small towns where people have no other TV channel to watch.

[Nitram]

29. Yes it is. Fox is a clear and present danger to our democracy.

[lancelyons]

24. We all have some family like this. How is this going to be solved?

It seems like the Right wing has decided that they are going to push a fake narrative to their people. Its non stop. They want to expand this propaganda to the rest of the country with Sinclair.

How do we stop this?

I dont think the democratic party if fighting this. Right now I dont think the democratic party is willing to do much to get in the way of all the bad Trump publicity.

The GOP and GOP foundations keep running ads, even on CNN. The democratic party is missing short of Tom Steyer.

How do we stop this?

Before long we will all be loving trump and watching fox news.

[VOX]

39. They are creating their own "reality," and want to pull everyone into it.

This is a 100% old-school KGB tactic:
1) Hit the opposition with so many lies and untruths that they get overwhelmed and either withdraw or turn on each other. Lay blame solely on them for any and all negative fallout. Stun the public by running scenarios in multiple directions simultaneously; sow confusion and distrust in long-standing laws, established procedures and institutions.

2) Repeat lies, over and over. Have a dedicated state media outlet (Fox, talk radio) to push the narrative daily. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until the opposition eventually fatigues and relents. Implant the idea that they can never “win.”

3) At every opportunity, connect certain names to manufactured unsavory deeds, until each name is identified with a negative “hook,” no matter how untrue: Hillary Clinton: Benghazi, emails, child sex slaves; Barack Obama: not born in the U.S., Muslim Brotherhood member, the “father of ISIS,” etc.

4) Offer up an artificial reality, preferably one that involves fear and outrage. Convince the public that mainstream traditions, documented history and even proven facts are ALL a lie, and they’ve been duped into obedience by liberal democracy, standard information outlets and heretofore trusted sources. In the new parallel reality, state emphatically that only ONE group or person can solve ALL existing problems.

If the U.S. survives this existential crisis, it will have survived a new kind of warfare— a war directed from afar, but fought within. The stakes couldn’t be higher, since the victor will determine the form that reality will take.

[Takket]

25. I am a male

And since #metoo became a thing, no one has bashed or hated on me. Probably because I’ve never harassed anyone.

[lillypaddle]

27. My sister is as you've described yours

It infuriates me, but also makes me so sad. We hardly speak at all any more - I'm 70 and she is 74. No telling how much (or little) time we have left on this planet.

[CrispyQ]

30. My mother was a democrat until she started listening to Rush Limbaugh every day

at work. In less than two years she was a completely different person. I asked her once when she decided that the party of big money represented her better than the democrats. "When the democrats decided to take all my hard earned money & give it to the Blacks & Hispanics." You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that.

The dems have ignored hate radio for 35+ years. (And now it's evil spawn, Fox news.) I don't think dem leadership knows how thoroughly rural America has been brainwashed to hate liberals, or libtards, as they like to call us. That race between Moore & Jones (Alabama) shouldn't have even been close, but the week before, white women were on national TV lamenting that they had to choose between a "child predator or a pro-abortion candidate." Like a fucking clump of cells matters more than a living breathing child. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

With all the shenanigans in our electoral process, the dems are going to need massive turnout & margins to win. They better sharpen their marketing game, cuz I don't think it's a sure thing that they' take back the House, & if they don't, the damage the Con will inflict in the next two years, we may not recover from.

[Deb]

31. So sorry

My bright, educated sister informed me that the Girl Scouts teach young girls to hate men. Wtf? It grieves me to keep contact to a minimum. I blame freaking mainstream cults.

[czarjak]

32. And Santa's coming to town...

[Catherine Vincent]

33. It's the same way they distort hate crimes. nt

[gratuitous]

34. Try a little Socratic dialog

If "Me Too" is anti-male, bashing and hating men and boys, dear sister, are you saying that women who are victimized in the workplace should simply suffer in silence and isolation? Should the men who mistreat the women in their offices simply get away with it? Is the workplace nothing more than a sexual playpen for predatory men? I know you're a better person than that, I don't think that's what you intend to say. Is it?

Dig below the surface. Expose the talking point for the nonsense it is. She's swallowing a line of bullshit without thinking critically. It's pre-packaged empty-calorie opinion. In the realm of political discourse, Fox opinions are junk food.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

35. Ask her this question..

"Have you visited and studied the Me Too web site?"

Send her to: https://metoomvmt.org/

Quote:

In 2006, Tarana Burke founded the me too. movement to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color from low wealth communities, find pathways to healing. Using the idea of “empowerment through empathy,” the me too. movement was ultimately created to ensure survivors know they're not alone in their journey.

Best of luck! Sometimes progress requires baby steps.

.....

[Mister Ed]

41. You'll lose most Fox droids at the "help...young women of color from low wealth communities" part.

They want nothing to do with helping any people of color, or poor people. Even if they're poor themselves.